The Billion Dollar Spy by David E Hoffman *****

 The Billion Dollar Spy by David E Hoffman

“Everything we do is dangerous—Adolf Tolkachev, October 11, 1984.” A Chronicle of the Cold War in the 70s and 80s through the exploits of “the most successful and valued agent the United States had run inside the Soviet Union.” Patriotic praise for the CIA.

“His documents and drawings unlocked the secrets of Soviet radar and revealed sensitive plans for research on weapons systems a decade into the future. He had taken frightful risks to smuggle circuit boards and blueprints out of his military laboratory and handed them over to the CIA.” As a result, the US dominated the skies in the 1990s. “The aerial kill ratios went from six to one in Korea, and two to one in Vietnam, to forty-eight to zero for the wars in Iraq and the Balkans.”

Tolkachev operated until Edward Lee Howard uncovered him. Howard and Tolkachev were similar. Neither one was recruited. Both had to work to be accepted as a spy. Tolkachev contacted the CIA several times, and it took over a year for him to be accepted. Both were motivated by personal vendettas against their governments. Tolkachev’s feelings went back to Stalin, while the CIA fired Hoffman. Neither was suspected. Thus, significant espionage successes by the CIA and the KGB were a matter of luck.

Espionage is an activity of details…

How did the CIA recognize KGB surveillance vehicles? John also discovered the smaller surveillance cars, the Zhigulis, often displayed a telltale, small triangle of dirt on the grille, apparently where the brushes at the KGB car wash didn’t reach.

Small things differentiated the CIA from the KGB. “The whole time we were meeting, I wasn’t really sure whether you were actually CIA. The one thing that proved to me you were CIA and not KGB is when you gave me those medicines to test on my daughter. Because the KGB is heartless. They would have given me one pill and said, do it. I knew I was working with a humane organization when you gave me five medicines [to test].”

The CIA would try anything. The animal repellent was to keep out rodents. The CIA experimented with using tiger feces, actually acquired in India, thinking that the scent of tigers might scare away any animal. It didn’t work; the other animals didn’t seem to care whether there was a tiger in the woods or not.

This book puts a human face on the Cold War.

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The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang *****

The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang

Serin, a useless human, received a golden ticket into the mysterious Rainfall Market, where she could get a Dokkaebi Orb, which would grant her the extraordinary–or ordinary–life she desired. “A lingering sense of warmth.” An antidote to 2025.

Serin lives in the poorest section of town with her mother, who embarrassingly darns her socks. “After classes, the other students went off to expensive crammers. Serin was the only one who headed home. Serin sighed as she looked up at the endless steps that led up the hillside. She hated these steps almost as much as she hated sitting bored in school.” She was the ideal candidate for a Ticket to the Rainfall Market, where she could completely change her life.

“The Strange Rumor. Somewhere far outside the big city was a place called Rainbow Town. And somewhere in Rainbow Town was a run-down, abandoned house. Rumor had it that if you sent a letter about your misfortune to this house, you would receive a mysterious Ticket. If you brought that Ticket to the house on the first day of the rainy season, you could completely change your life.”

 

“Serin: A girl who wants to escape her dreary life. Invited to a mysterious market that only opens during the rainy season, Serin is caught up in a whirlwind of adventures. She wanders the Rainfall Market in search of happiness. Issha: A guide cat who follows the holder of the Golden Ticket. A spirit creature who looks like a cat but acts like a puppy, Issha changes size at will and guides Serin to the Dokkaebi stores that keep the futures she wants.”

It is not as simple as all of that. Read this delightful book to enjoy Serin’s adventures and join her as she learns about herself and true happiness.

The author’s objective was: “Something that left readers with a lingering sense of warmth even after they turned the last page. A light, fun read that was still packed with meaning. A book that could heal wounded hearts and cast a ray of hope into the darkness.” See if you think he accomplished his goal.

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Blacktop Wasteland by S A Cosby *****

 Blacktop Wasteland by S A Cosby

Hard times for Beauregard. His garage mortgage is behind, the suppliers unpaid. The competition’s killing him. His mother owes the nursing home. His kids need eyeglasses, braces, and college tuition. What’s he willing to do? Fast-paced thriller.

Beauregard Montage did his time. When he married Kia, he promised to leave the Life. He had a double-wide, a business, and two boys, Darren (8) and Javon (12). When Precision Auto opened Red Hill County, Montage Motors was in trouble. Ronnie and Reggie Sessions convinced Beauregard (Bug) that one more job was the answer. He was the best wheelman in Virginia.  The job went south. Fortunately, Bug never got discouraged and never ran out of ideas.

Beauregard had a mixed relationship with this father, Anthony Ant Montage. They had good times, and his father taught him to drive and be a mechanic. However, his father also introduced him to the Life, sent him to juvie, and left when Bug was young. Beauregard was concerned that he’d be no better dad than his father was.

The original jewelry store heist was a money laundering operation. Nothing was reported to the cops, but Bug and his friends were pursued by big-time gangsters.

This book has some of the best car chases. “Now that was what I call some driving! That’s why I needed the Bug! Goddamn, I thought I saw Jesus trying to take the wheel, but you were like nah, Hoss, I got this!”

Quotes

Explanations were like assholes. Everyone has one, and they are all full of sh*t.

But it’s like I gave my boys a sickness. The counselor in juvie called it a ‘propensity for violent conflict resolution.’

What Javon did ain’t really his fault. Violence is a Montage family tradition.

Fast-paced, bare-knuckle thriller: ‘Drive it like you stole it.’ – Stephen King

Plenty of violence.

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The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown ***

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

Two books in one. A thriller with the CIA as the evil villain. Sci-Fi with endless infodumps that felt like I was in college lectures (asleep). All mixed with Dan Brown mysticism. If you love Dan Brown, you won’t be disappointed. Otherwise, skip it.

Robert Langdon (professor of symbology) came to the aid of Dr. Katherine Solomon (noetic scientist) when the CIA stole her book and destroyed all copies. Why did the CIA care about a book that explored “the enduring mysteries of the human mind…the nature of consciousness and of the soul?” Dr. Solomon believes in non-local consciousness, as evidenced by “ESP, sudden savant syndrome, precognition, blindsight, out-of-body experiences…the list goes on and on.” The action takes place in Prague and includes a Golěm.

Three forces are in conflict. The CIA is defending its evil-genius project (Threshold) buried beneath Prague in an abandoned bomb shelter. The Golěm is out to destroy the CIA installation. Robert and Katherine talk about human consciousness endlessly, like two undergraduates.

Other players are: Dr. Brigita Gessner, the CIA’s evil scientist; Sasha Vesna, Dr. Gessner’s assistant and unwitting experimental subject; Jason Kaufman, Dr. Solomon’s editor; and Mr. Everett Finch, Threshold’s evil project manager.

The story follows the Golěm’s quest to destroy Threshold and Langdon’s endless thoughts about the book, Threshold, human nature, etc. While Langdon and Katherine share erudite thoughts, the Golěm takes care of business. 

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Blood on Snow by Jo Lesbo ****

Blood on Snow by Jo Lesbo

Olav’s a fixer (hitman). He believes he’s dyslexic, not fit for anything else. When he’s contracted to kill his boss’s wife for adultery, he kills the lover instead. Olav is a complicated, lovable, and sad nerd, with a tenuous grasp on reality. Read it.

Anyway. To sum up, let’s put it like this: I’m no good at driving slowly, I’m way too soft, I fall in love far too easily, I lose my head when I get angry, and I’m bad at math. I’ve read a bit, but I don’t really know much, and certainly nothing anyone would find useful. And stalactites grow faster than I can write. So what on earth can a man like Daniel Hoffmann use someone like me for? The answer is—as you might have worked out already—as a fixer. Our protagonist sees himself as useless, but as this paragraph shows, he has logical thoughts and deep feelings.

Olav Johansen is full of contradictions. He has an “innate talent for subordination. ”And things get a bit messy when people like that, who have to be in charge, who have to sit on the throne, find out that their women are being unfaithful. I think the Daniel Hoffmanns of this world would have better and simpler lives if they could learn to look the other way, and maybe accept that their wives had an affair or two. When Maria (a deaf-and-dumb clerk at the supermarket) and Corina (whom he is contracted to “fix”) are in trouble, Olav rescues them without considering the consequences or knowing all the facts.

Throughout the book, Olav bemoans his lack of literacy while demonstrating that he is widely read. I’ve read that a human head weighs about four and a half kilos, which, at a speed of seventy kilometers an hour, gives the sort of force that would take someone better at math than me to work out.

In the end, his flaw is not that he is subordinate or dyslexic, but that he is too confident in his own analysis. Classic nerd.

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See How They Hide (A Quinn & Costa Thriller Book 6) by Allison Brennan ****

See How They Hide: A Dark Police Procedural by Allison Brennan

“Do you know how it feels when things are changing so slowly that you don’t realize it until all of a sudden, everything is different?” This thriller is like that. Starting with two murders, the threats grow. You’re like that slowly boiling frog. A page turner.

“Robert Benson, a married forty-seven-year-old antique store owner in rural Weems, Virginia, and twenty-one-year-old single college senior Jane Merrifield in Ashland, Oregon,” had been murdered. “No one would have thought to look at the cases together, except for two facts: both victims had their throats slit, and the killers had littered the bodies with hundreds of dried red poppies.” Kara Quinn and Matt Costa followed the case as the body count rose and the threats mounted.

Victim by victim and clue by clue, the case spreads across the country into an epic battle between Havenwood, a secretive group hidden in the Colorado wilderness, led by Calliope, a charismatic and beautiful woman. “No one was allowed to leave Havenwood. Some had tried; Calliope had stopped them.”  Against, Calliope is her daughter, Riley, and her sister, Thalia. Both sides have organizations with skills ranging from ex-military to hacking. Kara, Matt, and the FBI want to stop this war before more people die.

Notable victims:

Jesse Morrison: FBI cybercrime unit had a person of interest—Jesse Morrison, former Colorado State computer programmer, had quit eight years ago and moved into a family home outside the small town of South Fork. While they had no hard evidence that he was a hacker who helped create false identities, Cybercrimes had flagged him because of some suspicious online activities. His St. Bernard dog was named Banjo. Jesse was tortured and murdered, probably looking for information on the others who left Havenwood. His dog was missing.

Chris Crossman: Crossman’s house in Santa Fe. New clothing and shoes, both male and female, in multiple sizes. Nine identical suitcases. Thirty-six thousand in cash, but more interesting, Crossman had a stack of laminated red poppies that looked exactly like the poppy you found in Merrifield’s apartment. He outfitted new escapees and sent them off to start their new lives.

Trivia: Allison Brennan has written 68 Books (10 Series) since December 2005. >3 books per year.

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All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells *****

All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Murderbot is a Security Unit constructed from organic and inorganic parts with a governor to control the organic parts’ human tendencies. Murderbot hacked the governor. Now, he resembles a powerful augmented human. Not Asimov’s robot.

This book, first in the series, is Murderbot’s origin story. If the company discovered the hacked governor, Murderbot would be destroyed. Murderbot did his best to maintain the fiction that the governor was operating. However, he made exceptions to watch entertainment media. “It’s downloaded seven hundred hours of entertainment programming since we landed. Mostly serials. Mostly something called Sanctuary Moon.” It also made an exception to protect his clients. This is Science Fiction in the classic style: space travel, robots, technology.

His client is the PreservationAux Survey Team, headed by Dr. Mensah. This team of scientists is isolated on a planet with a damaged planetary survey package. The other survey team on the planet, DeltFall, has been murdered. PreservationAux is ill-prepared to defend themselves. The only hope is Murderbot and his hacked governor.

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My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende *****

My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende

Emelia was born in San Francisco in 1866. Her mother was a novice nun and a virgin when she met the dashing, aristocratic Mr. Gonzalo Andrés del Valle. He returned to Chile before Emelia was born. Emelia was a strong, independent woman.

Emelia grew up in the Mission District with her mother, Molly Walsh, and her father, Papo. When she was old enough to contribute to the family, she wrote dime novels in English and Spanish under the name of Brandon J. Price. Next, she took a job as a columnist using the same pseudonym. After the paper sent her to NYC, she took the job of war correspondent, under her own name, for the Chilean Civil War in 1891, where she tracked down her biological father. This is a historical novel with a strong female protagonist.

“Emilia is a wild and bright spirit.”

In NYC, Emelia eagerly learned about the pleasures of sex from Owen Whelan. He introduced her to a doctor who provided her with a diaphragm and instructions to use condoms to avoid infections. Omene, the divine odalisque (belly dancer), taught her about men. Docility and eagerness to please, celebrated qualities in a woman, were grave obstacles to moving up in the world.

With these worldly lessons learned, Emelia was ready to join the ranks of war correspondents reporting on the 1891 Chilean Civil War. She split the beat with Eric Whelan. She reported on President José Manuel Balmaceda, and Eric reported on the rebels. Eventually, they fell in love and got engaged.

Emelia was on the defeated side of the war. Her wartime friends, journalist Rodolfo León, and canteen girl Angelita Ayalef died in the conflict. Her only surviving friend was the yellow dog, Covadonga.

Pauline del Valle was a powerful matriarch whom Emelia eventually won over.

This is a story of a modern, liberated woman set in 19th-century San Francisco and Chile.

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The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock & Fernette Eide *****

The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock & Fernette Eide

Research has shown that dyslexia comes with advantages, such as visualizing 3D spaces and objects, recognizing novel connections, creating stories, and predicting the future. If you are dyslexic or care about someone who is dyslexic, read this book now.

Reading challenges are the most well-known characteristics of dyslexia. These challenges range from not recognizing letters and not being able to decode words to not understanding or retaining what has been read. For example, I misread words, read slowly, and have difficulty understanding or retaining what I’ve read. Despite these challenges, I had a successful career in high technology and now write novels in my retirement. This book explains the connection between my challenges and successes.

The first piece of good news is that reading difficulties lessen with time. “However, the lessons from these meta-analyses must certainly rank as one of the most important messages of this book for young dyslexic individuals: Don’t lose hope when you begin to feel that you are the last tree in the garden to blossom. Your day is coming. Time really is on your side.”

“These four MIND strengths are Material reasoning, Interconnected reasoning, Narrative reasoning, and Dynamic reasoning.”

Material reasoning has to do with understanding 3D objects and spaces. This may involve a sense of direction or the design of mechanical systems. For example, when I moved from Massachusetts to Utah, as a poor college student, I rented a van and figured out how to pack the contents of my apartment into it. On moving day, everything fitted into the van exactly as planned.

Interconnected reasoning is the ability to find unexpected connections. For example, my PhD dissertation was a novel way to design electronic circuits. The seed of my solution came from an algorithm invented for computer graphics.

Narrative reason is about combining knowledge into stories. Like many dyslexics, rote memorization doesn’t work for me. When required to memorize formulas for math classes, I chose instead to learn the derivations (stories) of the formulas. I could learn not formulas (rote memorization), but I could learn the stories (derivations).

Dynamic learning. I can construct a model of a process and simulate that model into the future. These skills made me an engineering vice president with a reputation for completing projects on time.

This book helped me understand my different behaviors. In college, I never missed a lecture, but also rarely completed the reading. I do not fear failures but look at them as opportunities to improve. I am addicted to novelty. All of these are part of the dyslexic advantage.

A must-read book for anyone living with dyslexia.

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The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman ****

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman

Four pensioners (ex-spy Elizabeth, former trade union organizer Ron, psychiatrist Ibrahim, retired nurse Joyce) search for £350 million in bitcoins co-owned by Nick Silver and Holly Lewis. Nick disappears. Holly is blown up by a car bomb. Cozy mystery.

Elizabeth’s daughter, Joanna, marries Paul Brett. Paul’s best man is Nick Silver. Holly Lewis doesn’t attend the wedding. Ron’s daughter, Suzi, is married to Danny Lloyd. He is abusive, and she sends him away at gunpoint. Their son, Kendrick, stays with his mother’s family. Drug dealer Connie takes juvenile delinquent Tai under her wing.

Nick Silver and Holly Lewis are business partners in The Compound, an underground high-security storage facility for offline storage (aka safety deposit boxes). This is where they store the key for the £350 million in bitcoins. The storage unit requires a 12-digit code. Nick knows six digits, and Holly knows the other six. If either of them dies, a solicitor delivers that code to the other one. Unfortunately, Holly has been blown up by a car bomb, Nick has disappeared, and no one can locate the solicitor.

Some quotes:

“A bit worried, yeah,” says Ron, looking at the gun. “If you kill Ron, I kill you,” says Bogdan. “With what?” says Davey. “Bare hands,” says Bogdan. “Yes, please, what a way to go,” says Davey. “And if I kill you?” “Then Elizabeth will kill you,” says Bogdan. “Who’s Elizabeth?” “You don’t want to find out,” says Bogdan.

Clever people, by which I mean Ibrahim or Elizabeth, are happiest when something is unusual, or unexpected, or not at all what you think, but normal people, me and Ron, that sort of person, like it when a tree is a tree and a shoe is a shoe, and a drug dealer is a murderer.

A wild ride with a satisfying ending.

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Rest and Be Thankful by Emma Glass ****

Rest and Be Thankful by Emma Glass

Rest and Be Thankful by Emma Glass leads with its message as the title. Once the story begins, Laura's life is depressing, death and disappointment. Powerfully, she survives with brief moments of gratitude and self-care. A subtle reminder to rest and be thankful.

Laura is a pediatric nurse in a halfway unit for newborns. Babies with the most severe issues go to intensive care. Those who strengthen and thrive go home. Laura’s infants have three paths: NICU, home, and death. Laura also cares for the parents. In her personal life, she loves her boyfriend, but he is not good for her. How does she survive? Rest and be thankful.

Laura starts her day with gratitude. I try to love this part of the day because I won’t see daylight for the next twelve hours. I try to love London but London doesn’t love me, doesn’t love itself. I love this morning light but I can’t love the grime, the concrete, the dead pigeon. … Poor Pigeon does get a little bit of my love, but I must keep some in reserve.

Once at the hospital, Laura tries gratitude again. Not sweaty. But not fresh. I feel grim. I hate starting the day this way. I dig into the pockets for surprises. My name badge, a pen (bonus), a crumpled hand towel with a phone number scrawled on it (X-ray), a handful of saline ampoules (shit, thank goodness I didn’t take home actual medication) and a single piece of chewing gum with a little coat of dust. I wipe the dust off and pop the gum in my mouth and let my teeth sink in. Glorious saliva pours, the tingle of strong mint floods my tongue. A small spurt of joy.

Laura cares for the babies and the parents. Our baby is back in oxygen, but the cannula is rubbing the skin under his nose, it’s so sore, I’ve kept him uncovered, he has cried all night. The doctor upped his morphine, fentanyl is going in, he desperately needs a pain review today. They want to do a scan but he’s probably not safe for transfer. They should take him down to intensive care but intensive care won’t take him because he’s managing his airway, just. Mum has been awake with me most of the night.

The hospital tries to comfort the parents of dead babies. Someone has put milk in the milk jug. Someone has arranged the teacups on saucers with handles all pointing in the same direction. There are fucking biscuits. The china is bone white with blood-red flowers running over the rims, dripping down the sides. This is the death china. This is brought out for families when their children die.

Laura’s boyfriend is self-centered and not supportive. Your eyes are on me. I tear the bread and dip it in the soup. I chew slowly, quietly, the butter melts on my tongue, rich and delicious. You tell me that if you’d known I was going to cook you wouldn’t have eaten so much crap. Your eyes are big and watery, you are gruff and slurring a little from sleep and booze. ‘If I had known I would have to cook, I would’ve stopped for something on the way home. I am starving, I didn’t have a lunch break today,’ I tell you.

The nurses support each other. They are barely hanging on. I help Amir with the drugs. I check his and he checks mine, we correct each other’s mistakes.

Optimism. I rock him and I feel like singing. In this holding, I am healing, he is dreaming and I feel content. This is where I’m supposed to be. This is why I’m here. A sick baby on his way to being well. On his way to being well because of surgery, medication, holding, sleeping, something. I wish I knew which one it was because then we could do more. Save more babies. Sometimes none of it works. I think about this all of the time.

Rest and be thankful.

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Peyton Place by Grace Metalious *****

 Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

In 1956, women had ambitions and desires. Men who didn’t respect them died. Who knew? And all in a small New England town. Peyton Place. The book was banned, but the ideas exploded into the women’s liberation movement. Not the book you were told it was.

The rich men from the old families ran Peyton Place. They had big houses and controlled the town. The poor mill workers lived in tar paper shacks without plumbing. However, Constance, an unwed, single mother, owned the Thrifty Corner Apparel Shoppe, a successful, expanding business. She raised her daughter, Allison, and provided opportunities for other women in town. Leslie Harrington owned Cumberland Mills. He employed the people living in the shacks and controlled the town selectmen and the bank. In the end, he lost everything.

Nothing is sugar-coated. Lucas Cross lives in a shack, drinks, beats his wife, and rapes his daughter, Selena. His wife commits suicide, but Selena prevails. Leslie Harrington is responsible for Kathy Ellsworth losing her right arm. No Peyton Place jury would go against him, but she also prevails.

Leslie raises his son, Rodney, to be a spoiled bully. Rodney dodges the World War II draft but gets his comeuppance in the end. The town doctor, Matthew Swain, performs an illegal abortion, but it turns out fine. Throughout the book, the 1956 status quo is subverted. Peyton Place was named for a runaway slave.

People have many opinions on this book. I like to think that the author, Grace Metalious, and the protagonist, Allison MacKenzie, are opening new vistas for the women of Peyton Place, but others read the book differently. The version I read had a long introduction by Ardis Cameron (ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1555534004).

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Fractured by Karin Slaughter *****

 Fractured by Karin Slaughter

 

Abigail Campano discovers her daughter Emma brutally murdered. She is attacked by Adam, a teen boy, but she defends herself and strangles him. Thus, begins the next case for Will Trent. A thriller.

 

Emma wasn’t murdered. She was abducted. Abigail wasn’t attacked by Adam, but she really killed him. Another girl, Kayla, was the one murdered. That was still in the first chapter!

 

Will Trent was raised by the state, no parents. He has dyslexia. He can barely read or write. Regardless, he is observant and intuitive. He is a great detective. His boss at the GBI tries to micromanage him while also respecting his skills.

 

Will is paired with Faith Mitchell from the Atlanta PD. She can’t figure out Will, while appreciating that he isn’t misogynistic like everyone at the APD. She works hard and is a good detective.

 

The book is about sex abuse, abuse of minors, and torture. However, most of the action is reported, not shown.

 

A fast-moving story.

 

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The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown ****

 The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

 

When Mr. Webber dies in Kellner’s Books, he leaves The Book of Doors to Cassie Andrews. With that book, “Any door is very door.” Cassie can teleport anywhere in space and time. She has many adventures with this and other magic books. A clever and confusing book.

 

The magic books include Illusions, Shadows, Joy, Control, Matter, Safety, Pain, Luck, and Memories. The books are worth millions to collectors. Librarian Bernard Fox wants to preserve them. The Bookseller was to auctions them off for her 40% cut. Dr. Hugo Barbary wants them for their power. Cassie is on the side of good against evil.

 

The illusions make it difficult to follow the convoluted plot. Characters that appear to be in jeopardy (or even dead) often are part of an illusion.

 

“There are two ideas about time travel. There is the open model of time travel and the closed model, ja? In the open model, you can travel into the past and change events so that your present is consequently changed also. This is what you see in science fiction stories.” This book uses the closed model. Nothing can change what has already happened. The plot makes many interesting uses of this.

 

This book is a clever battle between good and evil using time travel and magic. Occasionally, too clever.

 

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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce ****

 The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Harold receives a letter from Queenie, whom he hasn’t seen in 20 years. She is in hospice. He believes she will not die for as long as it takes him to walk to her. The walk is also his penance for his life’s sins. The walk goes viral. A novel of redemption.

Harold and his wife, Maureen, lived in the same house. She took care of the house, made meals, and did the laundry. She slept in the guest room, and he slept in the master bedroom. Their son disappeared (drug, alcohol) after Cambridge. Only Maureen communicated with David. Both Harold and Maureen blame Harold for David’s problems. Harold was a successful beer salesman until he was demoted. He is depressed. The walk gives his life purpose.

After receiving the letter from Queenie Hennessy, Harold decided to walk from Kingsbridge to Berwick-upon-Tweed. He is ill-prepared in terms of fitness, experience, and equipment. He has yachting shoes instead of hiking shoes. He left his cell phone at home. Later, he mailed his wallet and debit card back to Maureen. When totally dependent on the goodwill of others, he is like a pilgrim of yore. “What you’re doing is a pilgrimage for the twenty-first century. It’s awesome. Yours is the kind of story people want to hear.”During the pilgrimage, Harold meets many people. Most of the people he met were good, and Harold didn’t dwell on the others.

During their separation, Harold and Maureen reviewed their relationship and reevaluated it.

English humor: “What do you call two robbers?” he heard her ask. This time, they were back in the car. “I beg your pardon?” “It’s a joke,” she’d said. “Oh, I see. Very good. I don’t know. What do you call them?” “A pair of knickers.”

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Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (Historical novel) *****

 Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay(Historical novel)

The dark side of California history. The Filipino immigrant experience. From the Spanish-American War to farm laborers to World War II allies to anti-Asian sentiments in the 21^st century, the US relationship with the Philippines has been difficult.

Over the centuries, immigrants came to California for work. There were the 19th-century Chinese who came for mining and railroad work. The Okies during the Depression for farm labor. Mexican guest-workers in the 1960s. This book is about the Filipino experience.  Each Filipino generation faced its own challenges: “Manong Generation, the Watsonville riots, Stockton’s Little Manila, the Delano grape strike, the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr., and the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

This book explores the relationship between the Philippines and the United States. Between the Spanish-American War and World War II, Filipinos were non-citizen US nationals. People like Francisco could immigrate. As Francisco learned, he was not a citizen and was not welcome. Francisco faced brutal racism. During WWII, Filipinos were promised citizenship, but this didn’t happen.

The Filipino experiences of racism and discrimination are shared with other minorities. They were grouped with other Asians during the Asian backlash during COVID-19, and with Mexicans during the California farm labor movement. This book is valuable for focusing on Filipino history instead of combining it with some other group.

A historical novel that is hard to read at times.

Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature

Longlisted for the National Book Award

Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Award

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Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (coming-of-age) *****

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (coming-of-age novel)

Four generations of fathers and sons. Francisco, Emil, Chris, Enzo. Each father wants his son to benefit from his experience. Each son wants to set off in his own direction. Each generation lives in a different society. How can they span the generation gap?

Francisco arrived in the United States in 1929, looking for a better life for himself and his family back in the Philippines. He faced racism and brutality and fought back as a farm labor organizer. His son, Emil, resented that his father was rarely home. He responded by being apolitical and choosing school and assimilation. He became an engineer. His son, Chris, felt secure enough to pursue his heritage and personal interests. He became a high school history teacher. His son, Enzo, is still in high school.

The book presents narratives. Each boy navigates his teen years, struggling to find a place in a world unknown to his father, while his father offers obsolete and out-of-touch advice. The book chronicles four generations of a Filipino family. The generational conflicts are universal and reflect US societal changes.  This is not a book specific to Filipino families. For example, like many others of his generation, Emil responds to the Depression and WWII by seeking conservative security. Similarly, Enzo’s goals and aspirations reflect many teens who experienced COVID-19 lockdowns.

Four coming-of-age stories spread across time.

Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature

Longlisted for the National Book Award

Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Award

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